Cleaning crew

[rfny75]

1. How much cleaning crew do I need for a 72g reef tank and a 20g refugium?

2. Any preference between snails? different kinds of crabs?

3. How many should I put in the refugium

4. Where is the best place to buy them from? online? any specific store in the city or queens?

5. I'll probably start with the cleaning crew before adding fish, do I need to feed them anything or they just munch on the algae?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm new at this and want to make sure I'm doing it right!

Thanks!

 

[Killerdrgn]

It really depends on what your bioload is, if you have nothing in your tank you don't need a big cleaning crew. If it's fairly heavy then you may need a larger cleaning crew to keep the hair algae in check.
If you have more of a cleaning crew than you need you will probably need to feed them or they will start turning on each other.
I like buying my cleaning crews from reeftopia, they don't have a great selection but the essentials are all there, and unlike some online retailers they're very reliable.
Baseline crew should consist of emerald crabs, nassarius snails, astrea snails, turbo snails, peppermint shrimp, blue leg hermit crabs, red leg hermit crabs, and scarlet reef hermit crabs.
Refugium should not have too much of a cleaning crew, The refugium should be a place that is free of predation so you just need a couple of snails, couple hermits, maybe two or three peppermints for food production, and one or two emerald crabs preferably of opposite sex so their eggs can become a meal for your main tank.
If you have a deep sand bed refugium you might not want to put in the nassarius snails.

 

[EXPEDITION]

IMO

6 turbos
6 Nassarious
6 Hermits

No need to feed them.

As for the sump somehow mine end up in the sump over time.

 

[Killerdrgn]

IMO

6 turbos
6 Nassarious
6 Hermits

No need to feed them.

As for the sump somehow mine end up in the sump over time.

That should be a good start but he, or she, will need a bigger crew over time. Really depeding on what nuisances the tank gets. Aptasia can be taken care by the peppermints, bubble algae by the emeralds, asteas are really good at taking care of diatoms and other glass growing algaes.

 

[drperetz]

...

I, for example don't like cleanup crew... They tend to move the corals that I love the most and leave crazy trails on the glass or acrylic that I have to clean any way.

Killerdrgn,
I dont think ur giving the right advice by naming species that feed on specific nuisance organisms. Sometimes these animals avoid the primary target that you bought them intentionally for.

Some times I feel people get a clean up crew cause it looks cool. Unless the crew is in large #s I dont think it can clean even 75%-85%.
From what people say on MR emerald crabs are crabby for bubble algae. Most dont even smell it.

 

[drperetz]

...

Also, if u just started the tank 3 weeks ago..., u should pay attention to ur nitrates. Dont put ur crew in there yet...

If ur worried about nuisance algae, it will most likely appear if ur dont use RO/DI, dont do timly water changes, over feed, poor lighting, bad skimmer and the rest of some irresponsible reefing. :chef:

 

[rfny75]

Thanks guys for the info, I'll take your advise and start with 6 turbos
6 Nassarious
6 Hermits
I'll make sure my nitrates are undetectable before getting them

 

[Killerdrgn]

I, for example don't like cleanup crew... They tend to move the corals that I love the most and leave crazy trails on the glass or acrylic that I have to clean any way.

Killerdrgn,
I dont think ur giving the right advice by naming species that feed on specific nuisance organisms. Sometimes these animals avoid the primary target that you bought them intentionally for.

Some times I feel people get a clean up crew cause it looks cool. Unless the crew is in large #s I dont think it can clean even 75%-85%.
From what people say on MR emerald crabs are crabby for bubble algae. Most dont even smell it.

Ehh i like the larger cleaning crews as it really reduces tank maintenance. Even a little crew does go a long way in keeping your battles with nuisances to a minimum. I feed my crews by feeding them the hair and bubble algaes that grow in my frag tank, drop a rock from the frag tank in and all the algaes are stripped from the rock within a couple of days.

 

[meschaefer]

After years of problems, I don't keep hermit crabs. Hermits end up killing all or your snails in order to try on their shells. Now people will tell you that if you keep enough shells in the tank for the hermits they will leave the snails alone. I don't buy it, and in my experience tells me that this is not the case.

 

[inked]

I was looking at the pre packaged cleaning crews online. They were huge and expensive, They range from 150 to 250 and were huge over a hundred snails and hermits with a couple emeralds. Do I really need that many?